Is QUR'AN Allah's word? From doubt to certain conviction - Nouman Ali khan - Ramadan 2014 Day 11

This session will be a journey from doubt to conviction.

Fadel Saleh Samerai=He is from a village Samerai in Iraq, thats how a lot of Arabs name themselves.
He wrote a long time ago a book, my journey from doubt do conviction about the Prophet SAWW.
He was a highly intelligent,observant very young man who studied philosophy and got convinced that all religions are manmade, and only superstitious people believe in Heaven and Hell and he lost all faith in religion. And he thought that a lot of people around him also have doubts like him but are afraid to say it. And people are just following religion because religion runs within family and they dont even think about it. Then when he went to a University it was more secular so he finally expressed that he did not believe. But he still kept the possibility that it COULD be the truth. So he started writing some notes which were in favour and in against of religion.

I can say,do,eat whatever I want and live however I want if I leave this religion and if I accept it, it will put restrictions on me. Whats my life going to be like if I believe it or dont?
Even the Prophet said that the world is a prison for the believer and paradise for the disbeliever.

He was very knowledgeable and became the head of Phd in University of Baghdad but he refused to even study the Quran, although he read so many Arab books and on philosophy. He was proud of being an Arab thats why he studied ancient Arabic because he wanted to preserve his heritage. But he always stayed away from Quran because he wanted to keep his freedom.

One of his student suggested that he wrote a book which would be a critique on Quran and point out the mistakes in Quran to criticise it in his thesis. And he ends up writing around 18 books on the fact that Quran cannot possibly be a humans word. He then became famous and got his own TV show.

Another person is Abdur Rauf that I would like to introduce you to

Arabs were traditional people, desert people and travelled like nomads.
Nobody was interested in conquering Arab because there was no fertile land there and it was just desert.
They were in between Roman and Persian empires. So nobody messed with Arab and left them alone because it could lead to a war between the superpowers Roman and Persians. So Arabs spoke only to themselves so their language was very pure.

When too many cultures collide, the native language suffers as it becomes influenced by so many other cultures. e.g. English suffers in New york city because the place is full of immigrants each with their own brand of English.Urdu has also been heavily influenced by English. When a language is free of influences, it flourishes e.g. Arabic.
Arabs had no scenery around them, nothing! just desert. So it let their imagination go wild. Some of th emost remarkable writings have been written in prison. It makes people creative.

Arabic word for intellect is AQAL.
Iqaal was a rope people used to tie on their head, and it was used for tying camels.
It was used as a leash.
A leash restricts movement, so they say the intellect is what holds you back from doing stupid things.

e.g. Knife is called Sikkeen and sikkeen means PAUSE, so its a device to stop your life and breathing. Sikkeen also means coolness because it brings stillness and coolness to the animal before they kill it.

So Arabs have visual imagery associated with their words and their language is very picturesque and rich.

They had nothing to be proud of so they became proud of their language. In fact they were so proud that they thought every other language sounded retarded compared to theirs. So they took great care of their language. The tribes would have poetry competitions and battles. And they were so crazy about it that they killed the poet who could not beat the poet of the other tribe.
When the Quran came it also invited Arabs to produce something similar to the Quran. The Prophet SAWW entered Surah Kausar in a competition of poetry, when the Arabs did not even know it was Quran. And they heard it and said that it cant be the word of a human(Maa haaza qaulul bashar). They hung it on the kaabah.

Another incident:They sent their best poet Walid bin Mughaira to do a poetry slam with the Prophet SAWW. He was confident. He offered to give him women and money and governership. The Prophet SAWW recited some Quran in reply,Walid bin Mughaira began to CRY so hard. And he grabbed the mouth of the Prophet SAWW and said that I cannot take it anymore. He came back and said that I know poetry and thats not poetry and I know magic but its not magician and I know insanity but this is not insane speech. This Quran is bound to dominate.

Allah had not made the Prophet capable of poetry but he SAWW loved poetry.The Prophet SAWW used to have a poet Hassaan. Even the muslim tribes used to compete for poetry. So he wrote a poem about his tribe: Even the bowls in which we give charity shine. Imagine what is in it. We do impossible rescue missions so much so that our swords dont even get a chance to become dry. So the first line was about how generous he was and second was how brave he was. Everybody was impressed.
Khansa, a female sahabiya had comments, she said you used Jafanaat(you only have 9 or less bowls although you could have used a plural word) so you are not really that rich. You said Al gurr(they twinkle), anything can shine even rocks. You should have said they twinkle so much that they look white(use the word Beed). Then she said they twinkle during that day, thats not a big deal, the big deal is when something sparkles during the night, especially when it becomes a source of light. And you used Asyaaf for swords (you should have used suwoofoona), you said it drips with blood(yajreena- they flow, and rivers,NOT drops of blood). They loved doing this. Arabs LOVE correcting.They could have corrected the Quran the same way. But they were baffled. They were ready to fight and kill muslims instead of producing a Surah like this. Allah says gather the whole humanity and produce something like this.

Tufail Ibn Dosee= He was the leader of his tribe, and wanted to pay his respects to Makkah. Each tribe had an idol in Makkah around which they made pilgrimage. The leaders of Quraysh wanted to protect him from falling into the hands of Muhammad SAWW, so they met him outside Makkah to warn him. If a tribal leader accepts Islam, the whole tribe accepts Islam, so they were concerned about it. They told him that Muhammad SAWW casts spells on people and divides families, so he should go back.  Tufail did not want to go back so they gave him cork to plug his ears, if he heard the messenger SAWW listening. He hears Muhammad SAWW's recitation and plugs his ears, and begins to run. On second thought, he defiantly goes back to the Messenger SAWW because of his arrogance and self confidence, but ends up taking shahadah.

A historical perspective
Quran came down over the course of 23 years.
The society transformed from a polytheistic society to a society which worshipped Allah alone.
Before they used to think women were NOTHING. But they became the most noble now. The only being Allah uses the word taqwa for apart from Himself is mothers. Allah said be conscious of the wombs of mothers.
All tribes and all people became equal.
There came restrictions on eating and drinking and business.
Women could dress provocatively before but now they became women of Haya.
It changed how the people lived and how they love and hate, their mannerism, how people speak, politics, sociology, everything!

All of these changes occurred in just 23 years. Societies dont transform that quickly! There is no other example of such a complete change in society! Neither before the Quran and nor after the Quran.
If you study all the revolutions, they take a long time for ideas to seep into the society. And usually the people who intiate them are philosophers or authors who are not themselves on the battlefield. The person giving the idea and the person carrying it out is never the same.

Some people say that if Islam was so perfect, why did it last for only a short time in its perfect form(up til khulafa rashideen RA)?But the counterargument is that this is the only periods of time in history when a set of ideas was implemented in totality hundred percent. Not in bits and pieces.

The Quran was given to the Prophet SAWW who did not know how to read and write. The Quran did not exist as a book back then. The sahaba at that time could never think of the Quran without thinking of the Prophet and they were inseparable as they got it THROUGH the Prophet SAWW.

The word Dunya is used 115 times. The word Akhirah 115 times.
Angels 88 times. Devil 88 times
Life 145 times. Death 145 times.
Good deeds 167 times.Bad deeds 167 times.
Disbelief 17 times. Belief 17 times.
Iblees 11 times. Seeking refuge 11 times.
They said 332 times (qaalo). SAY 332 times.
Month is used 12 times.
Day is 365 times.
Prayer 5 times.

These miracles are not humanly possible. Remember the Quran was not in book form. It was step by step revealed in 23 years. No human can possibly estimate how many times he said what. Its not possible.

Much of the names used in Quran e.g. Ibrahim,Zakariyya,Aazir etc were not Arab names. And Arabs were culturally isolated and unaware of their meanings.
e.g. now we found out that Musa is NEWBORN. The Quran says that the wife of Pharoah said We could take him as a Musa/newborn. The Quran used the word Musa(translated it). The Quran is in Arabic and has knowledge and translations of other names. The Arabs could not have known this.
e.g. Ismael means God listens. Ibrahim AS said this because his prayer was accepted about Ismael AS. The Quran says Master accept from us you are the one who listens.

3,5,7,9,11,13,65(Multiple of 65). Thats how Sahaba used to recite the Quran. Once every week as Manaazil. And it was not in book form yet but this was so mathematical.